Asset Allocation – Page 213
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Features
Luxembourg plants its acorns
Almost five years ago, Luxembourg passed the legislation that created three new types of international pension vehicle. The Loi RCP of June 1999 enabled the creation of the Sepcav, an open-ended pension plan which operates like a DC plan in the US, and the Assep, which is similar to a ...
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Features
Slow task of rebuilding
Like the adverts for Carlsberg beer, the Danes believe that they probably have the best system in Europe when it comes to pensions coverage. Granted the Dutch will have more in terms of funded assets per head, but Denmark’s second pillar occupational membership at an estimated 95% of the workforce ...
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Features
Lure of sound regulation
Rightly or wrongly, offshore jurisdictions are associated with light regulation, and the main job of offshore regulators is perceived to be placing as few obstacles as possible in the way of multinational companies wishing to set up pension schemes for their employees. Guernsey, for example, has specifically exempted international pensions ...
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Features
Tapiola spreads its wings
The investment environment has been very challenging, says Hanna Hiidenpalo, who is investment director for Tapiola Mutual Pensions Insurance, based in Espoo. The guaranteed rate of return Finnish investors need to receive is currently at 4.5%. “The decision about the guarantee rate is not very closely related to the realities ...
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FeaturesHow the parliamentary pension scheme works
The pension scheme for Westminster MPs, the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund (PCPF) operates like most funded final salary arrangements by investing its members’ contributions and those from the Exchequer, which takes the place of an employer in an occupational scheme, in the financial markets.
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Features
An uncomfortably hot seat
As Malcolm Wicks, UK Minister of State for Pensions, acknowledges, the world of pensions has changed from a “rather dusty but worthy corner of business and public policy” to a “big issue” that regularly makes front-page headlines in UK tabloid newspapers. “That can be uncomfortable for Pensions Ministers from time ...
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Features
Income generators in vogue
The traditional equity-versus-bond decision in asset allocation is becoming too simplistic. The clear trend is towards greater diversification, particularly into non-traditional asset classes, together with a shift from relative return to total return investment. In 2003, there were many opportunities for asset managers to generate positive investment returns. Given the ...
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Features
France and Spain get on side
The announcement by France and Spain can be considered as a major breakthrough in the battle to achieve an internal market for occupational pensions. It also increases the pressure on member states whose tax legislation still discriminates against foreign pension funds (Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, the UK and ...
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Features
Philips focuses on the possible
Though the Philips Group as a worldwide electronics company operating in over 60 countries worldwide has a total workforce of 166,500 employees, it currently does not have any multinational pension plans. The pension plans the group has across the globe were established as the company grew its activities over the ...
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Features
Unweighting fixed income logical
The scenario of a pick-up in growth, contained inflation and ample market liquidity suggest a continuation of the trends seen in recent months for financial markets and a preference for equities, particularly high risk markets, over bonds. We can also expect to see greater risks in the second half of ...
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Features
Dutch pension reforms
As well as trying to mind-read Central Bankers, poring over economic statistics and keeping a keen watch on world events, investors also need to be more than up-to-date with all sorts of rules and regulations, dull though they may be. In a recent piece of careful and thorough research from ...
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Features
Drift from equities in mature markets
The head of investment at consultants Watson Wyatt, Roger Urwin, says there is a gradual move to lower equity allocations in mature pension countries. “In countries with maturing pension funds there seems to be a gradual move to lower equity allocations,” says Urwin, global head of the consulting firm’s investment ...
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Features
Dedicated follower of market trends
When mad cow disease was discovered in Washington state last December, cattle futures collapsed. However, the US dollar also continued its downward slide. As a result, the Mulvaney Capital Management Global Diversified programme, which invests in a mixture of commodities and financials, ended the month 5.35% up. Managed futures is ...
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Features
Time to be more creative
The defining moment of 2003 for the Irish fund management industry was the decision by UK insurance giant Aviva to reprieve its Dublin based asset management arm, Hibernian Investment Managers, Ireland’s fourth largest asset manager Aviva had initially considered closing down Hibernian and merging its operations with its London-based asset ...
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Features
Consumers hold the key
After three years of significant underperformance, Euro-zone equity markets outperformed the US, UK and Japan markets in 2003 as investors switched out of bonds and back into equities. The question is whether this is likely to continue in 2004. Some analysts suspect that the economic and financial recovery expected this ...
